The media, celebrities, weight-loss gurus, and the Internet bombard society with recommendations about how to shed unwanted pounds: Count calories, cut carbs, exercise more, skip meals, drink more water, pop a pill. Yet as more people try diligently to follow this advice, waistlines continue to expand.

In Supersized Lies, Robert J. Davis, PhD, a.k.a. The Healthy Skeptic, shows you why this inability to lose weight isn't your fault as he reveals how hype, half-truths, and unproven solutions have steered you into fruitless quests that inflict emotional and physical harm.

The award-winning health journalist reveals: which weight-loss measures are most—and least—likely to be effective; how conventional wisdom about weight loss is often wrong; how to spot misleading weight-loss advice, and avoid being duped into wasting time, money, and effort; how, contrary to what we often hear, effective weight control doesn't require following complicated, restrictive rules; and the interesting history behind flawed weight-loss advice. In addition to uncovering how and why we're being led astray, Supersized Lies lays out weight-control strategies that research shows actually work, and it tells the inspiring stories of people who, after falling victim to the falsehoods of conventional guidance, have achieved success by forging their own paths.